MARKKA: COIN OF FINLAND
1 markka, 1981: Republic of Finland
1 MARKKA.
Stylized trees around the denomination of the coin.
SUOMEN TASAVALTA: Republic of Finland.
Coat of arms of Finland: crowned lion, the right foreleg replaced with an armored human arm brandishing a sword, trampling with both hindpaws on a Russian sabre (in memory of lengthy wars with Russia in ancient times).
The microsymbol "K" (the initials of mint master Timo Kauko Koivuranta) under the handle of the saber (it is somewhat unusual that the coins of this series of different years of issue were marked with different marks of the same mint — K, M, N, S).
SUOMI FINLAND — inscription on the edge of the coin (Suomi — Finnish name of the state).
Engravers: Olof Eriksson and Heikki Häiväoja (he designed the heraldic Finnish lion in a new version).
Mint of Finland (Helsinki, Finland).
Mintage: 32.003.000.
- Copper-nickel: 24 mm - 6 g
- Reference price: 0.2$
COIN MARKKA — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- FINLAND (1864-2001) — The Grand Duchy of Finland as an Autonomous Part of the Russian Empire + Republic of Finland: markka = 100 penni
About the name of the coin markka: Finnish markka as a coin was minted during 1864-2001. It appeared during the time when Finland was under the oppression of the Russian Empire at the command of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. There is information that the name of the Finnish national currency was proposed by Elias Lönnrot (compiler of epic poetry Kalevala). He chose a term that has long been used in northern Europe to denote a measure of weight of precious metals or as a unit of money — mark ("markka" is an adaptation in Finnish).
By the way, since the 16th century, the mark coin has been minted on the Scandinavian peninsula and on the southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea. But the most famous — the German mark — appeared almost 10 years after the Finnish markka.
